


Being Them

by reeby10



Category: Derkholm Series - Diana Wynne Jones
Genre: Family, Gen, Plans For The Future, Siblings, Talking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-22
Updated: 2015-08-22
Packaged: 2018-04-12 02:31:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4461956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reeby10/pseuds/reeby10
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Pilgrim Tours have been disbanded and things can get back to normal. Ish.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Being Them

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Morbane](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morbane/gifts).



> Written for White Dwarf Rabbit Hole for Morbane, who asked for, among other things, Callette and/or Elda and their sibling relationship. I wanted to include Callette's tinkering and Querida, but unfortunately that didn't happen. I hope you enjoy it anyway!
> 
> I wanted to do a reread before writing this, but I only managed to get 1/4 of the way through Year of the Griffin by the due date, so this takes place just post-Darklord of Derkholm. I struggled a lot with Callette's voice since we don't see much from her POV, but I think she came out alright in the end :)

It took awhile to right the house after everything was over and done with. The Pilgrims were all gone, the dwarves and dragons too, but they’d left quite a mess. The house and yard were a shambles, though the kitchen and terrace had been especially hit hard. But they were all glad enough to be rid of Mr. Chesney that the work didn’t seem so very bad.

Mostly, Callette was just glad to have the majority of her gizmos back, especially that glorious 109th one. As soon as she could, she took them carefully away to her den, tucking them safely in to be admired later. She would have liked to sit and preen and admire them, but there was work to do and there was no way Mara would let her off from helping with the cleanup.

Lydda was, as always, protective of the kitchen, so they all left that part of the house to her. Kit’s cave was almost as bad after being used to hold the dwarves’ tribute, so he and Blade took over its cleaning. The rest of them were assigned areas to clean by Mara.

“Oh, can I redesign the living room, since we’re putting everything back together again anyway?” Callette asked as Derk started work on the roof, which luckily hadn’t quite collapsed in the months since they’d stretched it.

Mara and Derk looked at each other, a silent conversation passing between them, and Callette ruffled her feathers in exasperation. Hadn’t she proved her design skills with the sketches she’d done with the citadel? They’d looked fabulous, in her opinion, even if Derk hadn’t quite followed them in the end.

“Alright,” Mara finally said, “but be quick about it. I’d like to finish this up today, please.”

“I’ve had new designs drawn for the living room for _ages_ ,” Callette said, rolling her eyes skyward in exasperation. It was like they didn’t know her at all sometimes.

Now with their permission, she dug out her old sketches, making only a few improvements before handing them over to Derk. He seemed quite pleased with them and in no time at all, things were shifting and creaking and changing color. For the first time in months, their house was once again their own, with just a few small changes in decor and functionality.

They were all pleased to remove that reminder of the Pilgrim Tours and all the things they’d been subjected to in its running. They could go back to just being them.

***

Callette got in a good few days of admiring her gizmos after that. Everyone was still busy, but in better, more normal ways.

Blade and Kit were studying magic with Deucalion, who they’d known as Scales for so long that it was hard to remember his new, real name. Derk, with Don’s help, was trying to put all the animal pens together and take stock of everything since the dwarves had put quite a dent in the livestock population. Shona had gone to the Bard’s college, and with Geoffrey there she’d had absolutely no problem getting in. Lydda was working on restocking the kitchen after it had been pretty much completely wiped out by the dwarves and everything else. Mara still had a lot to do cleaning up her aunt’s house and getting everything straight, not to mention sending letters back and forth with Querida about what Mara and Derk thought she should do.

The only one Callette hadn’t seen much of was Elda.

At first Callette hadn’t thought much of it since Elda was small and curious and was quite good at hiding when she didn’t want to be put to work helping with whatever thing Derk needed. That was, until one morning as she was bringing one of the gizmos- a shining silver thing with sparkles that Callette was particularly enamored of at the moment- outside to admire in the sun, she saw Elda sneaking around behind Blade and Kit.

The two would-be wizards were heading off to their daily lessons as usual, grumping and quizzing each other over whatever they’d been taught the day before. Little Elda trailed behind them, just far enough back that they didn’t notice her. Callette might not have noticed her as well if she hadn’t been so attuned to shiny objects and Elda’s golden feathers hadn’t shone in the light at just the right moment.

Intrigued, Callette followed along as quietly as she could, but apparently Elda was also quite distracted because there was no way she shouldn’t have noticed the larger griffin behind her. It was quite curious.

Elda stopped just behind a copse of trees at the edge of the valley, looking out on the flattish area that Deucalion had chosen for Blade and Kit’s lessons. Callette waited a little ways away and wondered what her little sister could be doing out there without anyone’s knowledge.

It only took a half hour or so for Callette to get bored. “Elda,” she whispered, glad her beak allowed her to speak in the younger griffin’s direction and avoid the others hearing. “What are you doing?”

Elda let out a little squawk of shock, quickly ducking down in case the sound was loud enough for anyone else to hear. Once she was sure she hadn’t been spotted, she carefully moved closer to Callette, trying not to make too much noise in the dry underbrush.

“What do you want?” Elda grumped, fluffing her feathers in annoyance as she approached.

Callette shrugged her wings. “You were acting pretty suspicious, Elda,” she explained. “I wanted to see why you were sneaking about behind Blade and Kit. Does mum know where you are? Or dad?”

“No, I was trying to be quiet about it,” Elda said. She huffed a little, and Callette waited, knowing there was something more Elda wanted to say but was keeping in. It wouldn’t take long before she exploded, she’d never been good at concealing her emotions.

“I just wanted to watch and see what he’s teaching them,” Elda burst out after only a few minutes of silence. She stomped her feet. “They won’t tell me anything about their lessons or about magic when I ask! They act like I’m too young and dumb to care, but I want to know!”

Callette noded, mind whirring away like it did when she was working on some interesting new gizmo. Elda was obviously interested in learning about magic, though she was still young, but everyone was so busy now and probably would be for awhile. There really wasn’t anyone who could spare the time to teach her much, even if two of the wizards in their household weren’t also just learning themselves.

“Alright, Elda,” Callette finally said. Elda perked up, eyes bright as she looked excitedly at the older griffin with first one then the other. “You want to learn about magic? You want to become a wizard?”

“Yes, so much!”

“Then let’s make a plan,” Callette replied, already itching to get back to her den and make some notes. This was her time to shine. “You don’t want to be left hanging like Blade or Kit, do you?”

Elda shook her head, bouncing a little in place. “I want to learn!” she said earnestly. “I want to go to the university, even if dad doesn’t think it’s that great.”

“Well then,” Callette said with a laugh, “we have even more work to do than I thought. Let’s leave Blade and Kit to their lessons. I’ll help you out. And I think mum will as well.”

**Author's Note:**

> Concrit welcome. If you like my fic, come chat with me [on tumblr](http://voldiebuns.tumblr.com/) or maybe [buy me a coffee](http://ko-fi.com/A7274PC).


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